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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1977)
' eel <s j oni I Glasi le ele r J “ relgv Ti| ■ 1I coj j. ButletJ in theig g- * Cents'* ’ P m. star t attl race s wil|J e mil er Voting for this year’s student elections will begin tomorrow and run through Thursday. The polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. Polling places include Sbisa, Zachry, Kruger-Dunn Commons, the Guard Room and the Memorial Student Center. The Battalion Vol. 70 No. 100 14 Pages Tuesday, April 5, 1977 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 chool board presidency in runoff oters appear apathetic in council member election >f Med will be on Ap !d to a). ■ ■I •9 By MYRA KYLE Despite a light voter turnout for the A&M Consolidated School District election Saturday, there will be a runoff election between John C. Reagor and incumbent school board president W. B. Lancaster. Although Reagor defeated Lancaster by a slim margin, he did not receive a majority of the votes. Because no majority was achieved, the election code states that a runoff election should be scheduled to take place within 30 days after the regular election. The school board decided last night to hold the runoff election Saturday, April 16. Absentee voting is scheduled for April 6 through April 12 at the office of the superintendent. A total of 1,981 votes were cast in the Position 5 election. Reagor received 42.1 per cent of the vote, Lancaster received 36.04 per cent and Elizabeth Naugle got the remaining 21.86 per cent. Rodney Hill defeated Johnnie Junek for Position 2, with Hill receiving 61.51 per cent of the votes opposed to Junek’s 38.49 per cent. In the struggle for Position 3, Elliot Bray got 68.8 per cent of the vote compared to James W. Bassett Jr.’s 31.2 per cent. Incumbent W. D. Fitch managed to keep Position 4 on the school board in spite of a large number of write-in votes for Gayle Schmidt. Fitch won with 1,091 votes to Schmidt’s 692. With only 12.85 per cent of 15,000 registered voters in the A&M Consolidated district casting ballots Saturday, the largest turnout came from Precinct 9 and the lightest from Precinct 20. These votes were canvassed and accepted unanimously at the board meeting last night. —■amag juma—m n t,,— - Councilman Gary Halter was re-elected to represent Ward 1 in the city elections here Saturday. Battalion photo by Molly McMillan ighway bill now up to House United Press International ■ AUSTIN — House approval of a com promise $528 million highway spending bill is all that is needed to send the first major measure of the 1977 legislatives ses- O sion to the governor. The Senate passed ^ the compromise bill 23-7 yesterday. ■ Gov. Dolph Briscoe promised to press H ire House to go along with the com promise in exchange for senators’ agree- ment to boost the bill from $428 to $528 million. i The Senate voted to okay the extra $100 ■ Tjiillion despite criticism from liberal lenators. I “Were helping the selfish lobby, the chamber of commerce program that’s not based on any crisis that really exists and we’re taking away from people who are in real need,” said Sen. A. R. Schwartz, D-Galveston. Schwartz said the massive highway spending plan will end any prospects for eliminating sales taxes on utilities and cut funds available for school finance and other programs. “I ain’t going to live with myself under conditions where I have to trade concrete for human beings,” he said. “Are we really wedded to the philosophy that highways are the most important thing in this state?” Proponents said the compromise bill is $300 million less than Briscoe wanted for roads and avoids dedicating to roads the revenue from sales taxes on auto parts, tires and motor vehicles. The House approved a $674 million tax dedication plan for highways at Briscoe’s request on a 121-27 vote Feb. 9. “I think this is a compromise we can be proud of,” Sen William T. Moore, D-Bryan, said. “The very economy of this state — the lifeblood of this state — is based on roads. We cannot afford to let these highways deteriorate. ex discrimination suit against Consol back pay for female employes li DI The results of a sex discrimination suit Sgainst the A&M Consolidated Indepen dent School District should be known in approximately two weeks according to Jack Woods, attorney for the district. Woods discussed the case with school Ipoard members during last night’s school Board session. [ The suit, filed Nov. 24, 1974, by Peter J Brennan, then secretary of labor, al leged that the school district violated the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 regard ing salaries of faculty members. The suit is seeking payment with six per tent interest to all female employes for the fyears 1972 and 1973. Superintendent Fred A. Hopson said tile 3d our that, including court costs, this could run in excess of $60,000. Hopson said male employes during the years 1972 and 1973 worked under a con tract that paid them $300 more than their female counterparts. But he added that this contract required many hours of extra work for male em ployes. These duties involved taking and selling tickets at athletic events as well as specific assignments for any after-school hour functions, if the principal was not there. Before-school, noon, and after-school duty on playgrounds, parking lots, and other outside areas where students gather was also required . Hopson said since September 1973 all teachers a have been paid on an equal basis according to the number of years. He said they also perform equal and compara ble extra duties. Woods said the board had received no complaints of discrimination from faculty members. The board received a recommendation from a representative of the federal Wage and Hour Bureau, however, to change sal ary policies. —Cathy Brewer Sen. Tom Creighton, D-Mineral Wells, denied the road spending plan will leave legislators too little money for other pro grams . “I think there’s plenty of money going to be left to take care of our school fi nances, a reasonable teacher pay raise and th - rest of the needs of this state,” Creighton said. Schwartz said House approval early in the session of the massive highway spend ing bill and another measure to cut sale^ taxes on utilities $258 million put pressure on senators to hold back on both or face the necessity of cutting funds for state governent operations later in the session. “If you don’t think we can vote for another $100 million for highways and kill any repeal of sales taxes on utilities and that makes us look like fools then you’ve really got on rose-colored glasses,” Schwartz told senators. Three young liberals joined Schwartz to protest the highway spending. Sen. Carl Parker, D-Port Arthur, said the highway spending plan will leave lawmakers so little for school finance that local school districts will have to increase property taxes to raise teacher salaries. Sen. Gene Jones, D-Houston, com plained the Senate should not join the House in approving massive increases in road funds. “I left the House because I didn’t like the way things were being run over there — I don’t know why the Senate has to kneel down to them,” Jones said. Council drops easement plan to fence for children at Wolfpen A half-dozen members of the local news media waited listlessly Saturday night in a hallway of Texas Data Center, Inc. They complained about wanting to be elsewhere; preferably, home or a bar. They were waiting for three small grey boxes containing ballots that would formally re-elect three College Station City Council members. The registered voters also seemed apathetic, as only 251 voters turned out to re-elect Gary Halter, District 1; Larry Ringer, District 3; and Anne Hazen, District 5. All ran unopposed and were sworn in at a special meeting of the council last night. The 251 votes represented 4.56 per cent of the registered voters in College Station. “I’m very grateful for the people who did vote,” Hazen said. She said she knew many of the people who voted for her. She said she did no campaigning, but spent four or five hours working up a petition. Those votes cast were expensive. Election costs were approximately $10,000, roughly $40 a vote. Why didn’t the voters turn out? “It’s the ward system,” Ringer said. “People were confused as to which wards were really up for election and which ward they lived in,” he said. >1 Ringer said that last year the people could vote in the same place as the school board elections. This year only the District 1 election was held in the same building as school board elections. This district had the highest turn-out for a city council election. All three councilmen agreed that the lack of opposition was a major reason for a small turn-out. Halter said the reason they ran unopposed was because they were doing a good job. “I say that partly in jest, but to a large degree people run because they get mad at what is happening in the city,” he explained. Roundtree award for service presented to MSC president The Thomas H. Roundtree award for service to the Texas A&M Uni versity Center was awarded to John C. Oeffinger Saturday night as he retired from the office of Memorial Student Center Council and Direc torate President. Oeffinger received the award at the annual MSC Awards Banquet which marked the retirement of last year’s MSC officers and the induc tion of the new officers. / The president’s post was passed to Lynn Gibson, a junior from Cor pus Christi. The other new officers were also introduced. The banquet, attended by more than 500 persons, featured a videotape about the MSC shown on televisions placed around the room. The film was prepared by the Videotape Committee of the MSC. Two new awards, the Harold W. Gaines Award and the J. Wayne Stark Award, were presented to William J. Coady and Freeman W. Fisher. Coady received the Gaines Award as the outstanding all-around Council and Directorate member. Fisher received the Stark Award for excellence in presentation of large- scale entertainment, notably the All-Night Fair. Other awards given included out standing class member awards, dis tinguished service awards for both students and nonstudents, and out standing committee member awards. —John W. Tynes Reagor, Lancaster are cast in new election April 16 The College Station City Council last night decided to allow the residents of Wolfpen Creek Village development to handle the problem of children crossing Completion set for summer Construction to begin on new bus shelters By MARIANITA PADDOCK If you see a pagoda-like structure at the present bus stops next fall, don’t be alarmed. It’s not a mirage, but a new bus shelter. Construction for two shelters will begin this week, said Robert S. Boyce, architect. J.R. Loy, a contractor from Madison-* ville, will complete the shelters during the summer for use this fall, Boyce said. One shelter will be at the corner ol Joe Routt and Throckmortort and the other on the corner of Ireland Street and Ross. These shelters have a wooden frame structure that encloses a 24-foot area ac commodating 20 to 30 people sitting or 60 people standing, Boyce said. The shelters will cost about $15,000 each, Boyce said. This money will come from the Facility Plant Account which funds all construction on campus and is separate from the Shuttle Bus Account. The shelters will not affect pedestrians because they will not be built on the sidewalk, Boyce said. The grass in front of the Reed McDonald Building and a few parking spaces in the cornet of parking lot 60 will be used. The few car spaces to be used for the Joe Routt shelter will not affect the parking problem, Boyce explained. These shelters have an added feature, he said. “I was directed to design shelters that are movable. Apparently the shuttle bus committee hasn’t settled on permanent sights or they don’t know where the density of the traffic of the bus routes permanently are,” Boyce explained. “The columns can be unbotlted from the foundations, placed on a dolly and axle and rolled down the street like a trailer,” Boyce said. E.C. Oates, shuttle bus committee chairman, said that although the shelters seem small, they will be adequate. “We don’t expect people to be standing there for too long. We hope to get our bus service to where it may be a maximum of five to ten minutes for any crowd of people to wait,” Oates said. The recent price increase for shuttle bus passes for next fall, (from $15 to $20) was not used in the allocation for the construc tion of the shelters, but was due to the increasing cost of fuel, he said. A summer shuttle bus service will be offered for the first time beginning in June, Oates said. There will be six buses in use and a pass will cost $6 per semester. Old Faithful? Fourteen-month-old Joseph Cossairp, son of Mrs. Claudia Cossairp of College Station, looks up in amazement at the MSC fountain. Battalion photo by Carolyn Blosser their property rather than erecting fences at city expense. The children walk through the property going to A&M Consolidated Middle School. The council discussed using the city’s easement along Wolfpen Creek, which runs through the private property, as a designated area for the children. J.W. Wood, a Wolfpen resident, said the residents did not care for the idea. He said the students would still cause traffic and privacy problems. Councilman Gary Halter moved to abandon the easement idea. The council voted approval with Anne Hazen opposed and Lane Stephenson abstaining. Hazen was concerned with the children having to use Jersey and Anderson Streets to go to school. She, along with Stephen son, wanted to talk to the residents before making a final decision. The council also approved construction of a covered bridge across a sewer assess ment. John Pearson, who wants to build the bridge, said he will take responsibility for the bridge if the city ever needs to do work in the area the bridge would cover. A contract will be drawn between Pear son and the city. The council formed a subcommittee to consider the recommendations of the community center planning committee. Stephenson will head the subconmittee. Dozier and Halter will also serve as mem bers. . Weather M Fair am* mild today with tftd I high reaching into the upper 70*: Winds northeasterly at 10 guefing to 18 m.p.h. tow tonight fn the upper 40s. Partly dowdy and mild tomorrow. The high shook!he 5 in the low 80s. No precipitation in sight ^